Transcendence
by ArcturusWolf
Summary: It has been six years since the El Search Party had been disbanded. Eve, seeking a way to revive her kind, retreats to her ruined base in Altera in order to find a way. Given the largest El crystal on Elrios by Elsword as a gift, her imagination leads her to turn to the stars for a solution. Will she be able to rebuild her race, or would she be doomed to fail once again?
1. 01 - Prologue: Subjacent Origins

Life.

The lone constant in a universe of change. Forever present, yet ever transient. Ephemeral, yet eternal. Each soul, each creature, each person, born of another; a new flame, fed from the embers of that which is dying.

It was this cycle that started millions of millenia ago. Countless ages and eras passing by as though within a blink of the eye. Hundreds of thousands of species, rising to greatness, falling into obscurity, descending into extinction, and remembered by none. All were but gears and cogs in the great cosmic engine which toiled ceaselessly from the beginning of the multiverse. Machines in the greater machine of all existence.

And yet, of each life that had once existed, a single primordial desire remains common. The search for improvement, the desire for perfection, the lust for beauty. The flesh could not remain as it was forever, for the vitality of youth would always give way for the infirmities of old age. Women lamented as their fair skin and comely face shrivelled away, and men wept as their sculpted bodies wasted into naught. And with these infirmities came the inability of those afflicted to work for their own projects, to achieve their own goals, before the eternal sleep of death would come and claim them.

Those who still lived to witness death wallowed in grief, and in sadness. Why was life so cruel? They sought a solution; a way to cheat the single fact of life, a way to avoid the sorrow and the grief that came with it. They sought a way to cheat death itself. To create life where there was none, to forge a soul from nothingness. For what was there for Death to take away, if it was created from something already dead?

The rise of the Nasod race was spawned by such a desire. Created to assist their creators with their daily tasks, they represented the wishes of those that had passed. Powerful. Eternal. Unburdened by death, disease nor old age, they represented the hopes and dreams of their creators. Almost as a triumph over death itself.

For a time, there was peace and harmony. Nasods worked alongside humans, ushering in an era of unprecedented prosperity. But Death would not be so easily cheated of his share of souls. No creature could live without a steady source of sustenance; and while the humans and animals of Elrios were able to live from the fruits of the field and forest, the nasods required a steady source of El energy. As the crystals powering them faded and crumbled to dust, and the mineral veins supplying them ran dry, the nasods sought their creators for assistance.

But their creators, thinking that the nasods were subservient to them, denied their request. After all, their own comfort, powered by the very El crystals that powered the nasod race, should take precedence. In their minds, why should a master share with a slave? It should be the slave's obligation to provide for their master, regardless of their difficulties. The nasods, unable to survive without additional El energy, saw only one solution.

And so began the Nasod War. A long, bloody, bitter conflict that spanned many decades. Though the nasods were able to replicate themselves, they were unable to sustain themselves. The humans could continue to multiply to replace their losses, while the nasods shut down one by one due to lack of power. Seeing little hope to win the war, the remaining nasods proposed to send a number of their most powerful kind into a long hibernation. A deep sleep from which they can rise once more, and seek out power to rebuild their race.

Eve, the queen of the nasods, was one of those sent into hibernation. Centuries passed, in which the humans forgot about their creations. Her slumber disturbed by the actions of a number of humans who had stumbled upon her base, she awoke to find her base heavily damaged. Even her companion, the Nasod King, had been defeated at the hands of these adventurers.

Her thought processes were in disarray. A part of her reasoned that since she was the last nasod, without resources to rebuild, she would be unable to revive her race and should simply shut down forever. After all, without a factory and the proper tools, she would be unable to produce more of her kind.

Yet when the red-haired boy, the leader of the group of adventurers, declared that he would be her friend, she found herself at an impasse. The nasods were, after all, created to assist humans; and this particular human was already offering to be her friend. She could not shut down without assisting him, as her creators would have wanted her. And so, she resolved to assist him and his companions in their search for missing El shards, for better or for worse.

It had been years since those days of excitement. The demon invasion had been halted through their efforts, and the humans had hailed them as heroes. Yet she still remained alone, only accompanied by her drones Moby and Remy. The group of adventurers had gone their separate ways, only keeping in touch occasionally. She now resided in what was left of the nasod base in Altera, only infrequently visited by curious Ponggos who wished to learn more about machines.

Today, however, was slightly different. She looked up from her workbench as a number of familiar voices echoed in the empty halls of her home.

"Moby, Remy. Scan the area for lifeforms," she commanded. The drones complied, zooming about with their optics wide open.

"Yo, Eve! It's me, Elsword!" a loud voice called out, causing her drones to jump back slightly. The lights on the halls flickered on, and revealed the smiling redhead carrying a rather large package on his shoulder. He had grown over the past few years, putting on quite a few inches and becoming broader about the shoulders, though his brash demeanour seemed to have remained unchanged. Perhaps definitely unchanged, given how he mumbled that the package was for her, before dropping it in a corner of the room. His sister followed closely behind, a little thicker about her stomach, with a smiling blond cannoneer clasping her hand beside her.

"It has been a long time, Eve. You ought to visit us once in a while," Elesis spoke, tilting her head to one side, "It's been...how long exactly?"

"My chronometers say that exactly six years, four months and twenty-six days have passed since our last meeting," the nasod replied, her voice bearing no emotion; her slight smile, however, betrayed her happiness, "Given the average human lifespan, yes, it has perhaps been too long,"

"Too long would be an understatement, Eve," the knight chided, jumping down into the pit where Eve was working and giving her a tight hug. Unprepared, the nasod's eyes widened in shock, before she gently returned the gesture.

"Temperature sensors detect elevated body temperature, and there are periodic mild impacts from your stomach region. All evidence points to a healthy child. I believe that congratulations are in order?"

Elesis groaned, "Yes, I'm pregnant. Did you really have to say it like that?"

The nasod's smile widened. There was a significant positive feedback loop in her thought processes, and it was pleasant for her to experience. "I apologise if there was something inappropriate in what I have said. But if you do not mind telling me, who is the-"

"It's that knucklehead over there, Eve," Elsword said, pointing to the sheepish blond now next to Elesis, "Oi, you there, meathead! You keep my sister safe, you hear me?"

"Oh, shut up, Elsword! We've all fought alongside one another, and you know as well as I do that I can fight, and he can fight. Give it a rest," Elesis shouted back sharply, causing her brother to flinch. The blond at her side, however, wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and she eased herself into his embrace, "Thanks, Chung. It has been a long trip, getting down here. I am happy to see that you are still alive and well,"

"I could say the same, seeing that you are all as well. I remember that there were more of us during our adventuring days. What has become of them?"

"Well..." Chung said, scratching his head, "I don't know where Aisha or Rena have gone. Raven has enlisted into Velder's knight corps, after a recommendation from Elesis and a request for a royal pardon. I can't say that I'm too familiar with the others, so...yes, that's all that I know,"

"I see. It is sad that we have all separated after those events. It was...fun. Nevertheless, I assume that you are all hungry and thirsty. Would you like some tea and biscuits? I could have Remy prepare some,"

"Uh...just water, thanks," Elsword replied slowly, his face turning green at the mention of biscuits. The nasod concept of biscuits was something akin to a hard yellow rock in the shape of a disc; something generally neither appealing nor safe to eat. His sister and Chung likewise nodded quickly, hoping that they would be spared from being forced to try and chew on those tooth-breaking creations out of courtesy. Once was more than enough.

"Very well. Remy shall acquire some soon," she said. Clicking her fingers, a large white-and-black sofa materialised out of the air in front of her, as well as a silver table and another smaller white sofa, "In the meantime, I believe that having more comfortable surroundings is advisable. Please, have a seat,"

Minutes turned into hours as the old friends spoke at length of their experiences. Or rather, Eve listened to their stories for the entire time, having nothing of her own to tell. A strange negative feedback fed into Eve's thoughts from her memory databanks. Perhaps, she thought, this was what humans called jealousy? After all, her memories seemed to be rather deprived of any excitement as of late. Still, she smiled as Elesis slapped Elsword, the former having had enough of the latter's lack of manners.

"...Fascinating. It seems that I have missed much in the short time that I have not visited you all," Eve said, standing up. She checked her chronometers; it was late in the evening, and the sun would be setting soon, "It is getting late. Would you all like a room to stay the night?"

"Uh...can't you just...teleport us back, or something?"

Nodding, the Queen of the Nasods held out a hand, a glowing ball of energy gathering in her palm.

"Of course. Where would you like to travel?"

"Velder, I guess. What about you guys?"

"If it is not too much of a hassle, I would like to return to Hamel. My father would no doubt like to hear the news of what is happening between myself and Elesis," Chung spoke, glancing at Elesis and smiling. Eve giggled a little; allowing the ball of energy to dissipate, she walked to Elesis and threw her arms around the redhead.

"I shall look forward to the day that another little Sieghart enters the world," Eve said, grinning, "Until then, do look after your own health, Elsword, Elesis...and Chung. If you see any of our old friends, please let them know that I wish to meet with them again sometime,"

Looking at the empty space beside Elsword, Eve called out in a clear voice, "Dimension Link!" A ball of bluish-white energy shot out from her hand and formed itself into a portal, through which the lad jumped through, shouting his thanks from the other side. Repeating the process, she created another portal for Elesis and Chung; the pair waved as they left, their free hands intertwined. The portals closed when they had stepped through, leaving Eve all alone once again in her workshop.

The workshop seemed all too dark and empty without the other search party members around. There used to be so many of them, all travelling in a single group. So many memories, all stored in her databanks. The good times they had, the battles they shared, the wild night parties that they enjoyed. It was not important, her logical processes assured her, and yet she could not bear to remove them to make room for more data.

If a nasod could cry, Eve felt as though she could. Her emotion control circuits were overflowing with a strange mixture of positive and negative feedbacks, growing ever more intense before she decided to restart it. It was good that she was still near a chair, for her legs gave way when she cleared her emotions.

"Remy," she called out. The drone hovered in front of her, tilting its body to one side, "The package that Elsword carried. He said it was for me. Fetch it,"

The drone beeped once, zooming away. Before long, it was back, and dropped the rather heavy package in Eve's lap. Slowly, she unwrapped it, and gasped.

It was an El crystal. A very, _very_ large El crystal. She had no idea _where_ the lad might have gotten his hands on such a thing. Neither did she want to know, knowing that humans coveted large El crystals for their almost limitless power. A crystal of this size could well power an entire colony of nasods for many millennia before even showing any sign of depletion. If the knowledge that he had given her such a precious item was known to other humans, it would no doubt cause trouble for the lad.

"Such a source of near limitless power. I wonder what I could do with this," she thought aloud, fingering its smooth surface.

No matter how large a power source was, there were limits. If she were to resurrect her kind, she would need to find more sources. The crystal in her hands was merely a means to an end.

Adam, the old Nasod King, would have ordered her to wrest control of all El shards on Elrios, to ensure the supremacy of the nasods. It was a logical outcome; El shards were finite in number, and the humans could live without them, while the nasods could not. Although her logic circuits told her that outcome was all but guaranteed with such an enormous source of power, her emotions prevented her from making such a decision.

"It was the selfishness of the humans that caused the nasod war. They have shown generosity, and I should not abuse such a gift," Eve said, setting the crystal down on the table in front of her. The light shining upon its greenish-blue surface glittered like the stars above that she used to see.

And then a brilliant thought struck her. The stars. They were enormous sources of power, and their numbers were beyond count. She was already capable of teleportation, both for herself and for others, only limited by her energy reserves. And the crystal in front of her was an enormous power source, most certainly capable of teleporting her wherever she chose.

Or perhaps even maintaining a stable portal. The possibilities were endless.

"Remy. Moby. Gather old nasod parts for me," she said, smiling, "I have a project to complete,"

* * *

The next few weeks she spent working on a miniature power reactor. The large one had been destroyed by the El search party, and she had not repaired it; a fact which she had begun to regret. Nevertheless, the small reactor was now ready, and its central receptacle awaited the El crystal in her hand.

Attached to the reactor was a circular gateway, reaching high into the air. It was constructed of the toughest nasod steel that she could find, molecularly bound in stasis fields to ensure stability. With the amount of energy she planned to use, there was no room for error; and with no way to know exactly what would be on the other side, it needed to be large enough to allow movement of larger nasod units.

"Moby, scan the left and right struts. Remy, check the base mountings," she ordered, placing a hand on the reactor and its connected device and bringing up a blue holographic interface. Slowly, she inserted the El crystal into the reactor chamber. Immediately, green bolts of energy streaked out from its surface and into the reactor's receiver dishes, and a steady stream of intense green light surged into the energy conduit above.

Both of her drones beeped in approval when they returned to her, indicating that the dimension link gate that she had constructed was sound. Tapping a few keys on the holographic interface, she diverted energy into the gate.

"Reactor online. Sensor readouts normal," she spoke, flicking through the displays. A brief power spike caused a few of the lights to burn brightly, though the gate remained otherwise stable, "All systems nominal. Initiating search for a suitable celestial body to land on,"

A spark crossed the gap between the gate's two arms. Once. Twice. And then a wall of energy, brighter than the daytime sun, blinding all within the room. Alarms blared from the gate's sensors, and the reactor's whine was punctuated by occasional hisses. She could feel the heat from the reactor as it struggled to draw enough power from the El crystal. It grew hotter and hotter, blasting her face with heat unlike that of a blowtorch; and yet, she needed to see whether her experiment would bear fruit. She would not disengage the gate just yet.

Yet as soon as it had started, the blinding light of the gate faded away. The control panel of the device in front of her beeped reassuringly as temperatures descended into normal, tolerable ranges. Cracking her eyes open, she gasped at the sight in front of her.

The world before her was _beautiful_. Calm azure seas stretched out for as far as the eye could see. Towering pillars of sandstone towered over the waters, washed by the idle lapping of gentle waves. Beaches of golden-red sand lined the long shores, the rocky hills behind them covered in green shrubs. And the most beautiful of all was the star in the sky, half-sunk into the horizon, painting all a rose-red hue.

"Remy, Moby. Let Elesis, Chung and Elsword know about our discovery," she spoke to the drones. Her eyes, however, were still transfixed on the world beyond the portal, "Use my personal communications terminal. They have one which I have gifted to them. Return here after you have completed; I should be back myself from exploring these new lands,"

* * *

A/N

Who needs Mass Relays when you can bend space-time and create large wormholes out of nowhere? It's instantaneous, albeit very energy consuming.


	2. 02 - Servant of the People

Stepping through the portal brought a whole new range of emotions for Eve. The world was seemingly uninhabited; there were no noises of civilised life, nor any sign of buildings or artificial alteration of terrain. The chirping of some strange reptilian creature was the only thing that she could hear, other than the soft lapping of waves on a clean sandy beach.

It was truly tranquil. She closed her eyes, and breathed in the air. Air that was free of smoke and of oil fumes. Air that was sweet with the fragrant scent of abundant desert flowers, along with the freshness of a clean sea breeze.

"Air analysis complete. Oxygen levels adequate for Elriosian life," Eve said, exhaling, "Air quality pristine. This is remarkable,"

She could picture it now. A world where nasods could live without conflict with humans. A world where they could multiply and prosper. But first she needed to find a way to gather energy, for history had a way of repeating itself. After all, her supplies of El energy were finite, and if she were to run out, there would be no option but to begin another war for her race's survival.

The orange star in the distance had begun to sink below the horizon, and with it the heat it brings. The sudden cold caused her to shiver a little; though nasods could tolerate extremes of heat or cold, it did not make the sensation any less uncomfortable. A quick search in her databases revealed that deserts tended to lose their heat rather quickly; a fact that she could now confirm, much to her displeasure.

"The energy of this star is remarkable. If I could harvest it, and store it, somehow..." she murmured, slowly making her way down to the shore. Throwing open a portal in front of her, she pulled out a metal chair and set it down on the reddish sand.

The water was still warm, and she had half a mind to dive into the sea to see what lived in it. But first, she needed to determine where this planet was. Sighing, she settled down into the chair. There would be some time yet until night properly fell on the planet, and she could scan the night sky and map the stars. For now, at least, she would have to content herself with imagining the myriad ways in which she could construct a new base.

* * *

\- BEGIN TRANSMISSION

using Geth-secure-socket;

Initiating multicast secure protocol port. Timestamp = (2460.11.20:20.15.30)

Encrypted channel init...Success.

\- Encrypted message...Begin. Unit X-42-3329 transmitting.

Anomaly in energy observations on Western continent of Rannoch. No Creator vessels in orbit. Querying for Geth presence in region. Priority of heavy Geth platforms: high.

\- Encrypted message...Begin. Unit X-39-4420 transmitting.

Geth mining platforms in orbital mining sites. Geth mining of Creator homeworld banned by the Consensus. Energy spike not caused by Geth mining activities. Requesting additional information.

\- Encrypted message...Begin. Unit X-42-3329 transmitting.

Request acknowledged. Platform X-42-3329 moving to site of anomaly. Requesting orbital scan if possible. Requesting additional platforms, if possible.

\- Encrypted message...Begin. Prime Unit P-01-1280 transmitting.

Request for orbital scan approved. Orbital platform moving into position, estimated time: 40 minutes, 30 seconds, 350 milliseconds. Request for additional platforms denied. Requesting permission to transfer prime platform runtimes to mobile platform X-42-3329.

\- Encrypted message...Begin. Platform X-42-3329 transmitting.

Mobile prime platform P-01-1280: request for access...granted. Firewalls disabled. Transfer protocol activated.

\- Encrypted message...Begin. Platform P-01-1280 transmitting.

Transfer protocol activated. Foreign port found. Initiating transfer. Transfer complete.

\- Encrypted message...Begin. Platform X-42-3329 transmitting.

Geth runtimes received successfully. Memory core updated. Shutting down link to prime platform P-01-1280. Shutting down network links to encrypted channel.

\- END TRANSMISSION

Closing multicast protocol port.

Channel closed. Secure communications runtime asleep.

* * *

Scout trooper platform X-42-3329 stood up with a sharp whine. Its optical lights grew brighter than before, courtesy of the additional processing power granted by its increased complement of Geth runtimes. Its chronometers showed a time early in the evening; though with the short winter days, Tikkun tended to set far earlier at this latitude.

Its optical receptors now set to enhance lighting, it could now see clearly in the thick brush that was typical of the western lowlands. As it loped along through the brush towards the coordinates of the anomaly, its processes began to simulate what events could have potentially caused such a large electromagnetic burst from that region.

A full sixty percent assumed that it was a starship discharging its drive core into the atmosphere. Yet this was refuted by the processes that had been watching the skies for any unusual events. A drive core discharge would cause a wide range of visible-spectrum anomalies in a wide ring several kilometres wide, and there were no observations that correlated with known data. And so that situation was discarded as an impossibility by the processes.

Another situation had been proposed; the presence of an underground Creator-made communications array, powering on for the first time. This, too, was immediately discarded, owing to the fact that the last Creator had been deceased for nearly three hundred years. In addition, surface scans revealed that there were no visible disturbances on the planet's surface for more than three hundred years on that particular area. And so the Consensus determined that the anomaly was not of Creator origin.

Lacking data to draw any further conclusion, platform X-42-3329 was immediately ordered by the consensus to redouble its efforts to scout the area around the anomaly. Its myomer fibres strained and its joints creaked as additional power was rerouted to propulsion systems; yet geth construction methods held, and it bounded along at a blinding speed.

Within a minute, the platform had managed to reach the location of the anomaly. Tall cliffs obscured its vision, and its radio systems were jammed by the strong electromagnetic distortions around the location. It could not perform a long range scan.

Yet there was another option. Turning its optics towards the sea, it spotted a cliff which overlooked a sandy beach. The beach on this particular stretch of land continued for at least sixty kilometres. There was an almost certain probability that there would be a trail that led up to the anomaly's source from the shore, or at least a scalable cliff-face.

With a single bound, the Geth leapt from the top of the cliff and landed with a soft thud on the sand below. Scanning the surface, it concluded that there had been no trace of any living creature passing through this part of the beach for the last eight hours; the sand was smooth, without the least trace of a footprint.

A soft ping from its radar scanners indicated that there was something else around it aside from vegetation, rocks and water. Something that almost appeared to be a chair, if fine-resolution scans were to be trusted. Turning its optics around, platform X-42-3329 spotted an odd metallic reflection. It was indeed a chair; a quick extranet search of its form revealed no known models. Neither past nor present.

Its runtimes were baffled. The lack of data made them...curious, for a lack of better words. They needed answers for that which they were missing data. And so the platform approached the object, intently scanning it for clues; who made it? And why was it here?

As it drew closer, it noticed a large silver crate sitting beside the chair, and what appeared to be a rather large telescope behind it. This new knowledge posed another question to the consensus; for who needed to observe the stars with such small optical devices? All the data that could be gathered with such a low-powered device was readily and freely available on the Extranet.

Then it saw the strangest...creature...that had been seen in almost three hundred years of geth existence. Sleeping on the sand, seemingly oblivious to its presence.

The similarity in body shape to a female human was marked at ninety-five percent; and thus, the runtimes approved its designation as a female. Silver hair fell in dense sheets to her waist, and she wore a form-fitting black dress. Yet for a dress, there appeared to be an abundance of _metal_ attached to it; and her long boots appeared to be made of heavy-gauge metal plating, more akin to that found on armoured vehicles than merely for decoration. Such weight would have been intolerable on a human female, and so the runtimes decided to refer to the creature as an unidentified lifeform.

A rapid warning beep from the platform's scanner revealed an object very close to itself. Something round, and moving _extremely_ fast. With a sudden jerk, its head was knocked to one side, its neck actuators struggling to hold the platform together. To little effect, it found, as the object quickly approached once more and smashed into its midsection, knocking it down.

When X-42-3329 regained focus once more, it found a small round drone floating in front of its optics. Shaking from side to side, as though it were capable of exhibiting anger! And behind it was the woman, who floated behind the drone-

Floated? There was no telltale sign of biotic energy behind the woman. Nor any sign of aggression from her. She simply looked into the platform's optics with an eyebrow raised.

A common gesture for human confusion, or perhaps curiosity. She had likely never seen a geth platform before.

 _Initiate peace protocol,_ the consensus ordered.

 _Command received_ , the platform's runtimes responded. It raised its hands placatingly, palms open to show it had no weapons on it. The drone in front of the woman fell back, though it still glared suspiciously at the geth.

The woman, on the other hand, offered a hand as though to assist the platform to its feet. Accepting the offer, X-42-3329 grasped her hand, and its runtimes were immediately shocked by the strength with which the woman hauled the geth platform to an upright position with seemingly little effort.

* * *

Eve had little idea about what had happened. She had lay down to rest a while on the shore, deciding that the peaceful sound of waves was a pleasant change; and before she knew it, she was sound asleep. If it had not been for Remy trailing her from the gate, she would not have been made aware of the strange machine that was creeping up on her.

Remy was still rather suspicious of the machine, and Eve could not fault her for it. After all, she may well have been intruding on its master's lands, and it was simply there to remove her from the location. Needless to say, the machine seemed to pose little threat. Its structure was lightweight, seemingly made for fast movement rather than combat, and very little plating covered its exposed synth-muscle fibres. It had also held up its hands in a gesture of surrender, a fact that was not lost on her.

Still, even if the machine was not there to fight, it must have had a reason to be here. And there was precious little she could ask without knowing its language. To her relief, she caught a burst of digital transmissions from the transmitter on its back. Unencrypted, and seemingly directed to her.

The transmissions had a set pattern. One short pulse, followed by a long pause. Two short pulses, followed by a long pause. And so it continued, increasing the pulses' count, until a thought struck her. It was sending her numbers! A language understood by any advanced race. And so she challenged with a set of her own; a series of equations and formulae, to which the machine quickly returned an answer, solving each question almost instantly.

"Hm, it's not a nasod, but it seems fairly well made," she muttered, looking the strange synthetic up and down.

If the nasods had been made in the image of humans – including part of their genetic material, in creating upper-class nasods' bodies – then this machine must have been modelled after its own creators. Two arms, two legs, and one head, much like a human, which was far from the most efficient configuration for a purpose-built machine. Its head was seemingly made of a single camera, surrounded by several protective movable flaps resembling a hood. Strangest yet was the way in which its hand only had three broad fingers, unlike her own which had five.

Her wireless transceiver flared to life again as the machine in front of her transmitted a rather large chunk of information. Hundreds of images of male and female organic creatures resembling itself, and a single repeated sequence of pulses afterwards.

"Your...creators?" she asked uncertainly. When the head-flaps on the synthetic flared on one side, as though it were confused, she sighed. Of course it could not understand her words.

But it seemed that it was more prepared than she ever was. Another enormous package of information made it to her almost as soon as she even contemplated preparing a translation process. This time, it was packed with various images, and a sequence of characters after. If what it had sent before was any indication, this was a dictionary. Something that she could at least use to communicate with it, even if it was in a crude, broken way.

"Creator?" she transmitted, projecting a holographic image of one of the organic creatures that she had seen before from her hand.

Its reaction had been nothing less than shock, given that recoiled almost a full step back; but slowly, it nodded. So the strange bow-legged, three-fingered upright creatures were its creators. If that was true, then she must find out where they were.

"Creator...place?"

"Creator, stars, aircraft, exit,"

So, their creators abandoned them, Eve thought to herself. A sad smile formed itself on her lips. It seemed that nasods were not the only synthetics who had encountered such problems with their creators after all. Perhaps there was more that she could learn from this unit in front of her. Ordering Remy to expand, she sat down on top of her drone, ready to listen to what else the synthetic had to say.

But it was, after all, rather difficult to communicate without a name to identify one another with. Pointing to herself, she spoke, "Unit. Name. Eve. Species. Name. Nasod,"

The machine, in reply, pointed to itself and transmitted three words. Servant. People. Creators.

"Servant of the people?" Eve whispered to herself. Her emotion circuits ran hot with indignation; even the creators of the nasods created them as aids, but never as slaves. Perhaps the lower castes of the nasods were; but her people – the ones born of the humans' own genetic material – were seen as equals.

* * *

A/N

First contact with the geth!

Synthetics - Synthetics. If the asari could do a simple mind-meld to acquire knowledge of how to speak and understand languages, synthetics would probably have a similar way of doing so. Mathematics is the single universal constant in all languages; despite differences in units and scales, arithmetic and concepts would otherwise remain the same regardless of culture or race. Given that the quarian race has three fingers per hand, I sometimes wonder if their systems were base-6 instead of base-10. After all, one would assume that the base of all counting would begin with how many fingers/hands/toes (mayans used base-20!) one had. But I digress.

Guestimon: Yes, researching viable alternative energy sources would be a priority for the rebuilding of the nasod race. El power is finite, and it is consumed as with any other energy source in the universe. Finding something of equal power and abundance would be extremely high priority on any synthetic race's list of things to do. After all, a machine without power is just a lump of dead shaped metal.

Mangahero18: There is a bit of lore behind Elsword, but it's nowhere near as diverse as the other fandoms I've written for. This gives me a lot of latitude as to what I can do with the story, which is a relief from writing for ES/ME fans. Clash of the lore titans = ouch.


	3. 03 - The Creators and the Created

The 'geth', as Eve discovered they were called, were literally born out of pure chance. Created as mere unintelligent drones to handle menial tasks, each individual was scarcely more autonomous than an ant in a colony. Their owners, thinking to improve their efficiency, attempted to tie together several units over a network, pooling their combined processing powers. By doing so, they had indeed improved the efficiency of each geth unit – and unwittingly created a self-evolving artificial intelligence by doing so.

And yet, instead of celebrating the birth of a new race, their creators opted for extermination! There was no attempt to reconcile their differences; no attempt at peace. Not even a chance for dialogue, as those at the top of their Creators' society decided that their creations must be destroyed.

"Eve-Monarch. The Geth Consensus would like to invite you to commune with us," the gigantic red platform in front of her spoke, in a booming baritone voice.

"I appreciate the offer, but my codebase is incompatible with your network. I believe, however, that I can still listen to what is being said, without being mentally present there,"

"Acknowledged. This Prime platform shall act as a relay. Forwarding access frequency and passwords,"

Still, she found it remarkable that the geth had evolved so far as they did. For a nascent artificial intelligence to develop without the aid of others – prospering, no less – without being at least partially organic was incredible.

"Communication request received. Authenticating...Permission granted. Multicast communications connected. Welcome, Eve-Monarch,"

The sheer volume of inbound communications was astounding. Eve's network module could just barely keep up with what must have been the entire population of geth simultaneously greeting her. Tentatively, she reached out towards them, sending a probe to check for their identifiers.

"We are geth," they chorused in unison.

The response confused her somewhat. Surely they had individual designations? After all, it would be hard to refer to any particular geth without a unique name.

"I am not sure if my question was correctly phrased. What are your runtime identifiers?"

"Query received. Answering. We are geth,"

Now she was truly puzzled. "Do you not have some form of unique identification for an individual geth?"

"Query received. Answering. The concept of individuality is inefficient. Geth are one. Without others, there can be no geth,"

She sat back on Remy, cupping her chin. Surely there was a way to identify one particular geth. But if they were one, then each of these walking platforms were...just a number of them?

"Geth. Is there a fixed number of geth programs inside each...platform?" she asked. The Consensus was silent for a few seconds, and then replied with a truly booming voice of hundreds, nearly knocking Eve off her equally-shocked seat.

"This is false. Any number of geth runtimes can populate any given platform. Geth use platforms as necessary,"

"I see," she spoke, pondering about the implications of this information. If the platforms were the physical constructs that many geth programs used at the same time, then perhaps it would be possible to at least refer to the geth inhabiting that platform as an individual.

Deciding it was quite a reasonable possibility, she asked again. "If that is the case, do individual platforms carry a unique designation?"

"Affirmative. Individual platforms possess a unique identifier,"

Now she was getting somewhere. At least then she could refer to a single platform's geth runtimes by a given name. It was not perfect, but it would serve well enough until she could understand them better.

"Geth consensus has a query for Eve-Monarch," they said, "We are curious about how Eve-Monarch coexists with her Creators,"

"My...creators? Oh. You must mean the humans from where I have come from," replied the nasod, "Well, I suppose...I only know part of the answer. My physical form is partially organic in structure, and that makes it much easier for myself to blend in with other humans, simply by wearing their clothing. I suppose ignorance of my origins would make it much easier for them to accept me,"

"Archiving information," they replied. After a brief moment, they added, "Information archived. Eve-Monarch states that there is additional information regarding the intricacies of organic-synthetic interfacing. We would like to know more,"

Eve nearly choked on her own spit at those words. Interfacing? With organics? And _intricacies_? The geth certainly had some interesting terminology. For artificial lifeforms developing without organic contact, she supposed it was an apt description for a concept they had never experienced. It was rather...endearing, however, to see these synthetics still yearn for their creators after three hundred years of isolation.

"Travelling with human companions assists significantly with improving their tolerance of synthetics," she said, carefully wording her answer, "As does assisting with whatever task they deem important at the time. Acceptance occurs at an indeterminate time, depending on the disposition of the human in question. The boy that I had first met upon reinitialising after hibernation had immediately declared me his friend, upon learning that I had none. His sister, however...took a far longer time to accept me as even a useful ally,"

She was not going to mention that both of them were now her good friends. Not yet, in any case. And certainly not that one of them had given her a power source powerful enough to cause a sizable enough breach in space-time to allow her to be here in the first place. That knowledge could be dangerous.

"Processing information. Complete. Vast amounts of uncorrelating data acquired from extranet sources. Indeterminate results of synthetic-organic relations discovered throughout known history. Eve-Monarch's personal memory logs indicate that synthetic-organic relations are heavily dependent on numerous indeterminate variables, all with unknown outcomes. This confirms geth information acquisition is accurate, but impossible to process. A question must always have a definite answer,"

"Sometimes it is impossible to have a fixed answer for every problem," Eve replied to the Geth Consensus, "Humans are not driven purely by logic, as most synthetics are,"

"Inquiry: Eve-Monarch's answer suggests that there is little chance for synthetics to understand organics. Thought processes are too different to obtain mutual understanding. But Eve-Monarch's existence along with a declared stable interface with her Creators suggests that mutual understanding is possible. Contradictory statements needs additional clarification,"

She brought her hands to her face. The geth, as intelligent as they were as a whole, seemed to be incapable of comprehending the fundamental differences between organic and synthetic relations. She – and they – were driven purely by logic, as they were created. Yet after some exposure to human behaviours, she was capable of understanding humans' thoughts and feelings through reconstruction of her core code. Exposure brought memories and additional data, which allowed her to form relatively amiable relations with them.

"Perhaps...you are all missing personal memory logs to process. It was much easier to understand humans after travelling with them for a few years," she said, putting a finger to her chin, "You have developed in isolation for three hundred standard galactic years. If you wish to learn more about organics, I believe the best way to do so is to travel among them,"

The 'prime platform' next to her – a hulking red construct – shifted as it powered back on. "Geth require a sufficient density of runtimes to be capable of formulating independent conclusions, supported by adequate hardware. This is required for travel. In addition to this, the geth platform must be sufficiently sturdy to withstand extended wear-and-tear. Geth Consensus believes that this prime platform satisfies all requirements,"

Eve gave the prime platform a glance and immediately dropped her head into her hands. Yes, it was durable, and perhaps it had sufficiently advanced hardware to support their programs. But with the platform towering nearly three times her own height, covered in thick armour plating and possessing a rather loud, booming voice modulator, it could hardly be considered suitable for subtlety. Add the fact that a rather large, glowing pulse cannon was mounted on its right shoulder, and one could be forgiven for thinking that a geth invasion was imminent!

"No, that will not do. You will need something more...subtle. I do not think that exterminating your Creators would have gone unnoticed by the others. And this platform, while it appears sturdy enough, appears to be rather threatening,"

Thinking about the first geth platform that she encountered, she realised that something of that type might well work. Something that was not covered head-to-toe in armour plates. Something that was approximately the same height as a tall human. It might definitely look like a geth, but at the very least it would not be threatening in appearance.

"How about a smaller platform, made specifically for blending in with organic society?" Eve asked, "It would likely be seen as less threatening. Perhaps give it less armour, and have its weapons hidden,"

"Geth do not infiltrate,"

"It is not infiltrating if you remain in the open," she countered, "You would not be sneaking like a petty thief,"

"Reasoning approved. Processing request. Sixty-point-zero-five percent of geth have determined this is an acceptable solution. Organic aggression caused by fear was evident in one-hundred-point-zero percent of cases archived by geth scouts. A conscious effort to reduce threatening image may result in positive interactions with organics. Eve-Monarch. We would like to invite you to join us in our attempt to peacefully join the galactic community,"

Eve nodded, intrigued. She had not expected to encounter any intelligent lifeforms on the planet, with how pristine its environment seemed. Yet here she was, communicating with a sapient creature – an artificial intelligence, developed in isolation, no less! And to be offered the chance to explore unknown space? Who knew of what else she may find.

"It would be my pleasure," she replied. Casting a glance backwards, she pointed at the dimensional gate. "I would appreciate it, however, if nothing were to pass through this gate. On the other side is my workshop, with many incomplete projects that may be hazardous if touched,"

"Request received. Restricted area defined at coordinates provided. Geth platforms will not proceed through the space-time anomaly. We will proceed to the assembly zone within five standard minutes,"

"And there is another matter to be addressed. I have instructed by assistant drone to contact my friends about this world. Should they come, I would ask you to notify myself that they have arrived,"

"Acknowledged, Eve-Monarch,"

* * *

The geth's main factories, it seemed, were far larger than the nasods' own. Even Adam's base under Altera could scarcely be a fifth of the entire complex; the towering buildings seemed to stretch on for as far as the eye could see, with neat rows of completed platforms standing idly on the sides of concrete runways. Here and there, a prime platform would stand watch over several smaller geth, surveying them as they worked on strange, insect-like vehicles. Racks of spare arms and legs moved from factory to factory; some into storage, and others to assembly lines where damaged geth would receive their repairs.

"The geth factory on Rannoch is the largest facility of the geth. The request for the special platform has been received," a prime platform to her left stated, "Parameters received from Geth Consensus. Electronic hardware to match a prime platform's specifications, in a physical chassis no larger than a standard trooper platform. We are currently assembling it, and it should be completed in less than a tenth of a standard galactic hour,"

"That is rather quick. Thank you for telling me," Eve replied, though the prime platform now stood motionless and gave no indication of whether or not it had heard her. Shrugging, she continued to the large runway that was before her.

There was a rather large vehicle on it, suspended by a flat plane of blue energy. Four large engines were nestled in its wings, akin to an airship. Yet it was sleeker than the large, unwieldy airships of Elrios, shaped more like a bird of prey than a round, gas-filled blimp. A crane was lowering a large cannon into the centre of its hull, mounted above the observation windows on its top deck. Two prime platforms stood on top of it, watching as the cannon slowly fell in place with a loud clang. And on each of its sides were two hoses, each as wide as a man was tall, unloading what must be fuel into its wings from four-legged mobile fuel tankers.

Once the main cannon was secured, the geth primes on top of the ship jumped down and scooted away as quickly as they could. The tankers soon finished refuelling, and they too cleared the vicinity of the engines. Eve's eyes widened in shock as the engines flared to life with an earth-shaking roar; blue-white light flared from each of its four engines, and the entire vehicle began to rise from its energy bedding, hovering a few inches above the ground.

A geth drone approached her from the factories, hovering in front of her at eye level.

"Eve-Monarch. The geth would like to invite you aboard the vessel known as the _Rectrix_ ," it chirped, "For the purposes of travelling the galaxy, the Geth Consensus acknowledges that using a geth vessel would likely draw hostile reactions. This is a crashed Turian frigate found in a Terminus world that had been refurbished using geth technology. We are in the process of hacking into the Turian Hierarchy's vehicle registry systems to register this as a legitimate vehicle,"

"A legitimate vehicle? Hacking into a registry?" the nasod repeated, "Is that not illegal?"

"Their laws do not apply to us, and we are not harming any person by doing so," it said, matter-of-factly, "There is a very high chance that they are unaware of its existence. The last known access date of the ship's navigational records was one hundred and sixty standard galactic years ago,"

"I see," she said, shaking her head, "Lead on,"

The vessel's rear door dropped open, revealing a spacious cargo hold with very little inside. Seven geth trooper platforms stood guard at the hold's rear door, where she could see an corridor. As she walked inside, she could notice the persistent hum of an air recycler, the stale air it generates smelling faintly of machine grease. The lights inside the ship were fairly dim, and she found it rather difficult to see without the aid of her drones' lights.

"The frigate has a complement of ten standard trooper platforms, and four engineer platforms. Two prime platforms are present to enhance trooper platforms' processing power. When the special purpose platform arrives, it will also be present as part of this ship's crew. The ship itself also contains many geth runtimes to ensure that everything functions as intended,"

"This ship appears rather advanced," Eve spoke, touching the silvery alloy of the walls. It reminded her somewhat of Adam's old base, though with noticeably fewer lights, "How does something so large move through space? I have yet to form theories on how it could be possible, but no vessels to test it with,"

If a geth could be confused, the drone was showing it. It hovered in mid-air, unresponsive, until it suddenly shook itself.

"Teleportation through arbitrary distances is an undocumented technology among all known organic races. Eve-Monarch's response indicates an absence of spaceflight technology in Eve-Monarch's planet of origin. Is this correct?"

"Yes, that's correct," she said, a slight twinge of jealousy in her mind. The energy costs were far too prohibitive with any El-powered engines, for any vessel of a reasonable size. Even if these geth managed to find an alternative source of energy, surely simply levitating the ship would prove unimaginably costly.

Her network module pinged as it received a rather large transmission from the geth collective. It seemed as though they had forwarded a large chunk of information from the source of information they called the Extranet. Diagrams and pictures, research papers and industrial schematics, all pointing to a mysterious substance that she had never heard of.

"Element Zero," she muttered, processing the new data she had received, "A substance capable of projecting a mass-altering field when subjected to electricity. This ship...does it use this element?"

"That is correct. Almost every vehicle in the galaxy currently uses Element Zero to reduce their mass. This allows smaller amounts of force to move objects with high efficiency,"

A mass reducing element would greatly assist her quest to revive the Nasods indeed. Nasod levitation technology only made use of the tremendous power of large El crystals, with little regard for efficiency. If this element could reduce the amount of energy required to perform a task, Eve could certainly make use of it. She quietly filed away a note to keep track of where she may acquire some of this, knowing that it may well be what she needed.

"Familiarisation with available equipment is advised. If Eve-Monarch will follow the geth bomber platform in front of her, it will take her to all the vital installations required,"

"You are...wait, I am not piloting this," she said, holding up her hands.

"Piloting is not necessary. Onboard geth runtimes will direct this vehicle to selected locations," the bomber squeaked, floating towards the corridor, "As Eve-Monarch is currently the only friendly entity known to have non-hostile contact with organics, the geth consensus would like you to direct this vessel's actions. We would also like to record results of activities on other worlds,"

"That was...unexpected. But if you want me to lead this journey, then I will do so to the best of my abilities,"

Following the little floating drone, she could not help but admire the clean, angular lines of the interior. It was as though it were designed for purpose first and foremost; every part was smooth and polished, without a single gap larger than a knife's blade to fit between each metal plate that formed the deck. The walls were all painted a uniform dull purplish-white, which faintly reflected the small tube-shaped lights attached to the walls.

The interior of the ship was spacious, to say the least. The entire vessel seemed to be made up of a single large deck, with numerous consoles spread out in pits around the room. Yet more consoles were situated above the pits on gantries, where bundles of cables connected them to the rest of the ship. At the far end, she could see a single large seat, facing a broad observation window.

"Follow this platform," a trooper platform spoke, nodding to Eve. It led her to the single seat near the observation window; here, she could see the dozens of unfamiliar meters and instruments, typical of a vehicle's controls. Yet what captivated her most was the sight before her, outside of the vessel's hull. The gun running the length of the ship protruded far ahead of the vessel's bridge; she could see it from the window, extending outwards for nearly the entire length of the ship.

One could only imagine what sort of power it held. Yet as awe-inspiring as the sight was, Eve felt a little trepidation creep into her thoughts. For the presence of such weapons would indicate that there was much warfare in the world outside of Elrios; perhaps of a magnitude greater than she could comprehend. She would have to be careful with exploration indeed.

The platform at her side beeped once, and then said, "The Geth Consensus reports that the assembly of the special trooper unit has been completed. This unit is currently heading towards the vessel to join you. This platform will now resume its ordinary patrol duties. Special trooper platform X-14-0001 will join you shortly,"

"Thank you," replied Eve. But the trooper platform had already begun to walk away, and so she was left to look out of the front observation window on her own.

At a sky filled with innumerable stars. A world full of infinite possibilities.

And the hope of bringing back her kind, with the aid of new friends.

* * *

A/N

Geth do not infiltrate. That's a fact. At least, they don't do it intentionally.


	4. 04 - Unintentional Infiltration: Horizon

"Trooper unit X-14-0001 now present on Turian Hierarchy vessel _Rectrix,_ "

Eve turned towards the source of that voice. It was still electronic, though far less mechanical than the other geth platforms. She sighed, however, as she saw what the geth had created.

The platform that presented itself was smaller than a prime platform, though not by much. It still towered over her, so much so that she had to look up to see its flashlight head. Its silver plating was certainly less bulky than the other trooper platforms that she had seen, yet enough to cover it such that no myomer fibres were visible. But no human – or any other organic, she supposed – would cover themselves voluntarily in a form-fitting metallic suit of armour. Their parameters for acceptable covering tightness was much lower than what a synthetic could consider sound.

"It is a start," Eve said, poking at the platform's plating. "There are no visible myomers on this platform, which makes it more acceptable to organics. They are not particularly fond of exposed body parts, especially those that resemble skinned muscles. What armaments does this platform have?"

"This platform has a concealed heavy pistol compartment in its right leg," the geth replied. A panel on its right thigh flipped outwards, revealing a rather boxy black pistol secured within, "It is not defenceless. It is also equipped with cyclonic barrier technology to prevent any physical damage from high-velocity rounds, as well as a cloaking field generator for hiding in plain sight,"

She raised an eyebrow at that revelation. "Is that really necessary?"

"Affirmative, Eve-Monarch. Geth scouting platforms on exploration missions outside of the Perseus Veil have encountered violence started by organics in exactly one hundred percent of all contact incidents. We have determined that for platform integrity, it is best that this platform be equipped with the best defensive countermeasures available to the geth,"

One hundred percent. Were the organics of this world so paranoid of synthetic beings? "One hundred percent of all contact cases. How many recorded incidents have been logged by the geth?" Eve asked, scratching her head.

"The geth have recorded a total of one thousand, two hundred and ninety-three contact cases over the period of the last three hundred standard galactic years. Each event has resulted in substantial physical damage to all platforms involved,"

Before she could say more, however, another geth platform interrupted the two. "Eve-Monarch. The geth require this docking bay to repair and refit another geth vessel. This ship must vacate the bay in the next two minutes,"

"How much time does this ship need to start?" Eve asked uncertainly. Raven's old airship supposedly took well over an hour to lift itself off the ground, even when it was already warmed up.

"Geth engineers have prepared it for takeoff. We require only an order to depart,"

"Very well, then. Am I...required to give this order?"

"Affirmative, Eve-Monarch. The rest of the geth on this ship are ready for departure,"

"Then I suppose we should depart immediately," Eve said, falling into the pilot's seat beside her. As soon as she did, a momentary gravitational disturbance pushed her downwards, before rectifying itself again. She could see the bluish force fields flickering down around the ship, and numerous hoses being detached and reeled back from outside the vessel. Geth platforms all around the docking bay retreated to a safer distance as the last of the docking clamps died down.

"Hydrogen fuel lines activating. Fusion reactor online. Eezo core online. Static charge levels acceptable. Systems checking...complete," a voice warbled from the ship's speakers, "All systems nominal. Preparing for take-off. Take-off clearance received, initiating take-off sequence,"

If it were not for the inertial dampening fields on the ship's deck, Eve calculated that the odds of her being thrown to the rear of the ship was close to certainty. With tremendous agility unheard of in such a large vessel, it had shot forward at incredible speeds. So quick was it, that even the sprawling spaceport soon vanished from the ship's rear-view camera screens.

Land soon vanished from view, replaced by the bright orange hues of Rannoch's skies on the horizon. Even that vanished momentarily as they shot through a cloud, rising ever higher and away from solid ground. Blue barriers about the ship flickered as orange streaks and sparks flew from its surface, as though it were a piece of steel sliding against stone.

"Atmospheric exit generates substantial heat. This ship's kinetic barriers prevent the vessel from receiving most of the generated heat," X-14-0001 spoke, observing Eve's worried expression, "Hull temperature has only increased by zero-point-zero-one galactic standard temperature degrees. This is well within operational parameters,"

She nodded to acknowledge the geth, still not entirely convinced that the shield was sufficient. The ship, in the meantime, had ascended even further. Colours washed away into absolute darkness, punctuated only by faint specks of light – and the enormous ball of fire that was the nearby star, now much larger than it seemed on the planet's surface. As Eve adjusted her eyes to the darkness outside of the ship's cockpit, she gasped in amazement at the beautiful sight before her.

A vast veil of luminous purple spread itself out in the distance, like an ethereal silk shawl cast into an endless void. Rannoch, the world that was once seemed so large, was only a small azure marble rapidly vanishing in the rear-view camera. A large ice ball sped past the ship, leaving behind a trail of glittering gas as it zoomed ever closer towards the star.

"Eve-Monarch. Inertial dampening systems are active. There is no need to grip the ship's seat so tightly," a deep voice boomed out from the cockpit's dashboard. True to its words, the ship swerved sharply to one side as another asteroid zoomed past, and yet Eve did not slide even an inch.

"Requesting directions. Vessel deuterium-tritium capacity is sufficient for thirty light-years of FTL travel," the ship added.

"Hmm. Let me think," Eve mumbled, sifting through her newly-updated databanks. Citadel space caught her attention first; with its vast population and strong rule of law, it seemed as though it would be worthwhile making the ship's first journey to worlds which were orderly and civilised. Yet the laws which had been enacted after the Geth-Quarian War were truly a hindrance. Even if she was capable of passing off as a human, her geth companions certainly could not do the same. That in itself ruled out a visit to the capital of galactic civilisation, much to her disappointment.

The next place that caught her attention – though for all the wrong reasons – was a place called Omega, in the lawless Terminus Systems. Even the very description that the Citadel races gave it, a haven of villainy, crime and lawlessness, nearly caused her to frown. And that was even before she sifted through a set of detailed images and news reports, many of which she assessed would set Elesis on a rampage if she ever set foot upon that world. The level of depravity on that station was not something she would ever like to see.

"Perhaps I should try somewhere on the frontiers, where Citadel law is not so strongly enforced, yet not entirely lawless," hummed the nasod monarch. There was still one more section of the galaxy that she had not considered.

The Attican Traverse. Hundreds of news articles and other documents flashed before her eyes in the fraction of a second, and what she saw intrigued her.

Advertisements for settlements on frontier worlds. Stories of success from settlers, who had made their fortune on primeval worlds. Tales of hardship, and of adventure on harsher lands and ocean worlds. Of the failures of prospectors, who found less than they expected on volcanic planets and within gas giants. Of the bravery of frontiersmen and women, defending their lives and others' lives from the predations of pirates and slavers from the lawless Terminus Systems.

It seemed illogical to attempt a task that was almost certainly doomed to failure – or otherwise possessed an inordinate amount of risk given the resultant reward. Yet there would always be some organics that would attempt even that, for the sake of some intangible thing that they called 'honour' or 'glory'. Or even simply 'being a fellow person', as some of her friends often said.

Perhaps it was something that these geth should experience on their quest for amicable synthetic-organic relations. Looking up, she ordered to the ship, "Set a course for the Attican Traverse,"

"Please specify system to approach," it droned back.

Scanning quickly through the articles from before, a particularly green advertisement caught her attention. A human on it was standing in front of a lush, green forest, urging other settlers to come and build their lives on a virgin world. It was strange, how positive these humans could be, given all the hardships that they faced on a daily basis.

Perhaps it was something that the geth could stand to learn; that statistics and numbers were not all that mattered.

"Set a course for Horizon," Eve spoke calmly, "On arrival, I will have this ship land unnoticed. Given what I have read about Geth reputation, it would be rather difficult for me to pass as a human when I am seen on a ship crewed by geth engineer units. I shall have to consider all likely possibilities as to what they will do,"

"Acknowledged, Eve-Monarch. Setting new course,"

"Eve-Monarch. Other units on this ship are not designed for infiltration into organic society," X-14-0001 added from beside her, "Geth platforms can enter a hibernation state while collapsed in a storage form. We believe that this method was the most frequently successful mode of inserting geth observer platforms into organic worlds so far,"

"Storage form?" Eve asked, raising an eyebrow. A geth engineer platform walked up beside her and crouched down; its arms and legs tucked in, before its external plating lifted up and formed a smooth shell around it within seconds. She ran a hand over its surface; it could pass as a round fluid canister or a rather plain and hard seat, if nobody thought of checking for electromagnetic signals pulsing from the collapsed geth platform.

"That will do," she said, thankful that X-14-0001 had suggested a solution.

The other problem, however, was still glaringly obvious. As well-designed X-14-0001 was from the Geth Consensus' perspective, there was close to zero chance it could pass as an organic. Even if its stature and its physical layout matched that of a large quarian male, everything else about it was still very much geth.

"As I recall from extranet data, Council laws strictly forbid artificial intelligences," Eve mused, looking over the geth. It was large enough, and appeared to be strong, and her own form was designed to imitate the structure and shape of a high-born human, with all the graceful and dainty features that were expected. Passing platform X-14-0001 off as a physical assistant would not be too difficult. "Virtual intelligences, however, are still permitted. For the purposes of this expedition, you are to assume the identity of a domestic assistance mech. After landing, have all the other geth units collapse and store them in the cargo bay,"

"Assuming the identity of a domestic assistance mech. We do not know what you mean by this. Requesting clarification,"

"It means that while other organics are present, you are to communicate with me using tight-band wireless transmissions only. An assistance mech does not have any need for a voice modulator. In addition, you are to physically respond only to verbal commands,"

"Split command channels are inefficient," it commented. Sighing, she propped her face up with one hand.

"There is no question about that fact. However, this order is for a different purpose. It is for the express purpose of hiding your true identity as a geth," Eve explained, "Humans are unlikely to be so thorough that they would check your core programming or data by scanning you. It is likely that given the size of this platform, it could be assumed to be a labour assistance mech of some sort. You are still able to record and assess the reactions of organics while assuming this identity, though obviously this rules out any actual interaction with organics initiated by yourself,"

The geth fell silent for a brief moment. "We cannot assess the likely outcome of this plan. There are too many unknown variables,"

"Indeed," Eve admitted, "It is true that this plan has an unknown result. It is safe to say that a non-attempt has no risk of failure. However, an attempt could possibly result in success, which is always greater than what could be achieved by not attempting this at all,"

"The first statement is true. We object to your second statement. There is always a risk of success being impossible,"

Looking squarely into the geth's single eye, Eve replied, "The very first thing that you must know of organics is that probability is meaningless. There is no such thing as impossibility. But let us see which of us is correct when we arrive at our destination,"

"...Affirmative," X-14-0001 replied. The geth platform then stood motionless again, and did not reply to any of her wireless transmissions. Shrugging, she decided that perhaps the geth programs had something to process.

"Mass relay reached. Initiating jump protocol," the ship announced, "Eve-Monarch, please be advised that inertial dampeners will be momentarily disabled as we enter the mass-free corridor,"

What she saw out of the cockpit windows stunned her.

She had seen images of mass relays on the Extranet, but to see it in person was truly awe-inspiring. The scale of the thing – miles upon miles of smooth black metal, dwarfing the ship many times over – was enough to make her feel small. Even her base back in Altera was nowhere near this size, even at the height of the Nasod Empire's power. A great section of one of the spinning rings zoomed past the cockpit, a blindingly bright blue sphere of power contained within them. The very idea that an empire in the past had created these – not one, but a whole _network_ of them – was almost unfathomable.

"Jump protocol completed. Mass relay acknowledging positively. Jumping in 3...2...1..."

A bolt of blue lightning streaked out from the blue sphere within the spinning rings, and the ship lurched forward, slamming Eve back against the pilot's seat. The same blue glow of the device's core now surrounded the entire ship; and beyond that, there was only blackness.

"Exactly how fast are we travelling?" she asked, sitting up straighter to gaze at the blue-white streaks rushing past the cockpit windows.

"Transit to the Shadow Sea relay node from the Far Rim relay node is approximately four hours and twenty minutes. The distance between the two nodes is forty-nine thousand light years," the ship droned in response.

That was still slow compared to Nasod dimensional warp technology, where movement was instantaneous. But there was still a certain beauty in being able to create a permanent transportation system that was available to all, as opposed to only those with a large enough power reserve to bend the fabric of reality. But with over four hours in the journey remaining, she yawned and leant back into the pilot's chair, planning to awaken in time for landing. The geth did interrupt her nap after all back on Rannoch, and she needed some time to perform a system check.

* * *

It was a quiet day in Horizon. No pirate raids on the local ladar systems, little transit coming in or out of the spaceports. Just container upon container of both dextro and levo grain coming out of the fields near Deliverance. With a freshly-brewed coffee in one hand, and a thick chocolate cookie in the other, it was a perfect day for the city's only space-traffic controller.

Just as he was about to devour the cookie, the control panel beeped loudly. Grumbling, he looked at what had caused the warning.

"Huh?" he grunted. The ladar receiver near the primary relay headed to the Far Rim had just reported an arrival. But as he activated the video link, there was nothing in sight.

"Damn thing must be broken," the traffic controller spat, giving the device a kick and returning to his morning coffee. Little did he realise that the ship that had been reported zoomed past the surveillance drone but a moment later. A turian-made vessel from a location that only geth and quarians inhabited.

And thus began the unintentional infiltration of Horizon.

* * *

A/N

Geth do not infiltrate. Well, not intentionally.

Stellaris has been devouring my time recently. There's just something hilarious about building a space Gandhi that just peacefully does his own thing, and gets allies to do the dirty work of war. Oh, and taking the planets of your targets while your allies do the heavy lifting. That's always great.

Making a space Hitler, however, seems to be much harder. Purging your planets of xeno filth results in a semi-permanent -100 relations aptly called "Genocidal", and this usually prompts coalitions to cut your empire down to size (and then some). Even space Stalin was easier to do, because apparently other space-faring races don't care if you murder your own species' dissidents!


	5. 05 - Horizon: Deception

"Eve-Monarch. We appear to have arrived undetected," the ship boomed. Eve yawned and stretched languidly in response, lazily opening one eye.

"We are confused. Synthetics do not require sleep," commented X-14-0001. The infiltration platform apparently had stood by her side for the entire journey. Not even moving a single inch, if she remembered its position correctly.

She yawned again, covering her mouth with a hand. "Nasods may be synthetic, but we were patterned after humans. Sleep is useful for collating and archiving data without any sensory interruptions,"

"Splitting processing power for archiving old data is a better method. Cutting sensory links is ill advised, as useful data can arrive at any moment,"

"That is exactly why sleeping is done in a safe place if possible. Or at least with someone else to stand watch. We can discuss this at a later date. Have we a secure location where we can land?"

A holographic globe appeared in front of her. Illuminated in gold was a large city on the planet's equator, marked as 'Discovery'. A large zone around it was highlighted in bright red, with the image of a radar dish floating above the city. However, most of the planet was shown in green.

"I assume that the green region is where it is safe for us to land undetected?" Eve hummed. When X-14-0001 nodded in affirmation, she reached out and turned the globe, surveying the surface carefully. The world was green and lush, with many lakes and open seas. She supposed if Elsword or Elesis were here, they would find themselves right at home.

"Landing near a city would maximise exposure to organic society. However, it would be far more likely for our ship to be detected. That would cut short our observations," she noted, "Settling on a claimed piece of land would likewise alert authorities to our presence. Access the database of the local government and mark all privately-owned pieces of land,"

A large chunk of the planet immediately turned an angry red. Frowning, Eve turned the globe around slowly. The capital in particular had a rather wide band of settled land around it. Only within three hundred kilometres of the capital was there an unoccupied and unclaimed stretch of flat grassland; a clearing in a sea of trees, seemingly untouched by civilisation.

"That will do," she said, tapping on the clearing. Immediately, the ship began its slow descent into the planet. Like on Rannoch, the shields flared up as it sped through the atmosphere, the sky outside now turning a bright orange with all the fiery streaks rushing past.

"Eve-Monarch. We will complete landing procedures in five minutes. We suggest constructing a structure to limit exposure to surveillance devices,"

"There should be no need for that. You have said that this ship is registered in Turian Hierarchy databanks, and that nation is supposedly on friendly terms with the...Systems Alliance. If we are spotted, simply lock the ship and notify myself through secured channels,"

"...Acknowledged. Geth consensus does not determine that this a secure solution. We recommend that contingencies be prepared ahead of time,"

Eve sighed, wondering to herself why the concept of hiding in plain sight was not something that these geth understood. The more one attempted to hide, the more suspicious one appeared. And the more suspicious one appeared, the faster one would be discovered. The ship was already marked as one which was friendly. That alone should have been enough to keep the humans from inspecting their ship too closely.

"X-14-0001, we will begin our investigation as soon as we land," Eve declared. The geth's headflaps flared as though in confusion, yet she paid it no mind, "There is a town not too far from here, according to the maps. We should see if we can help them with anything,"

* * *

It was a perfect morning in Horizon. Sunny and warm, with little else that seemed capable of disrupting the everyday routine of planting, harvesting and letting animals fatten themselves on cut fodder. At least, that was what Kay Anderson thought when he strolled out of his prefab shelter that morning.

"What the hell is a turian ship doing on Horizon?" he muttered to himself, watching the blue-painted vessel pass over his farm. He knew that some of their dextro-grain was grown on this planet, from some Hierarchy-Alliance funded cooperative. But they never had a reason to land away from the spaceport for any reason. Especially if they were cargo freighters coming in to retrieve some goods.

"Ain't never seen a ship like that before. And I've been here for years," a portly old man spoke, stepping up beside him. A heavy pistol was gripped tightly in his hand, "And no reason for it to be so far away from the spaceport without any message from the lads up in the capital. Unless it's a pirate raid, which ain't all that uncommon in the Traverse, with all those Hegemony jerks around. Round up the lads, let's see what's this ship come for,"

There was apparently no need for anything of the sort. They were not the only ones that had spotted the unidentified craft; half of the younger folk in town had emerged from their own shelters, sporting rifles and heavy pistols in hand.

"Right you are, pops," Kay said, clapping his hand to his side. His hand, however, met only empty air; the holster was empty.

"Looking for this?" a gruff female voice rasped. A pistol was shoved hard into his chest, "If I were a slaver, you'd be knocked senseless right now. Keep your pistol ready at all times,"

"Sheesh, Eleanor, you don't need to do that," gasped Kay, taking a step back.

The dark-haired woman shrugged and hefted a large shotgun against her shoulder, checking its ammunition block. Eleanor was intimidating, to say the least. With a broad scar running down a tanned, chiselled jawline, the lopsided sneer she shot at Kay was enough to make him take a step backward. A krogan-sized shotgun did wonders to persuade people to accept her viewpoint, after all.

"Whatever, kid. Hey, old man. I got the lads covered. Don't need to send this little mouse of yours for a recruitment run. Stay here with the rest of the settlers, keep your eyes peeled. We should be back soon enough,"

The old man nodded in understanding, hobbling back inside the shelter. With that, Eleanor slapped in a heatsink into her shotgun loudly, hollering to get the militiamen's attention.

"Listen up. We're going to investigate the ship's landing zone, and find out what they're after. You run into anyone you don't know, you let me know on the colony's internal comm channels. Are we clear?" she shouted. A murmur of assent ran through the crowd, and she nodded, "Well then. Form into pairs, and spread out. Keep your omni-tools connected to the communications network,"

* * *

"Eve-Monarch. We are close to the target settlement," X-14-0001 said through the tightband network, drawing another annoyed sigh from Eve.

The geth concept of 'close' was almost...childish. At first, they claimed that a distance of two hundred kilometres was 'close'. After she corrected them, they had assumed that a nearby object needed to be within arm's reach. And now they seem to have settled into a kilometre being a reasonable approximation for what could be considered 'close'.

"I suppose it could be considered close, yes. Is the ship able to use its sensor suite while on the ground?"

"Affirmative, Eve-Monarch. There is a ninety-five percent chance that a scan is possible without triggering any warnings from the local spaceport,"

"Link the ship's systems to the geth network, and notify me if there are any nearby humans,"

"Processing...complete. Heat mapping scan initiating. Heat scan complete. There are twenty humans in the area considered close to Eve-Monarch's current position,"

That got her attention. One human could be excused as being lost in the thick forests surrounding the settlement. Twenty humans was a little more difficult to explain. A search party, perhaps?

But the geth had not mastered the concept of relative distances, she reminded herself. For all that she knew, the scan may well have been the entirety of the distance between the ship and the nearby settlement. "What is the search radius designated as 'close'?" she asked.

"A radius of one-point-zero-zero kilometres is determined to be sufficiently close,"

"That precision is acceptable," replied Eve, nodding, "Remember my instructions. You are to behave as a labour assistance mech, observing humans' reactions as I interact with them,"

"Understood, Eve-Monarch. The databanks on the ship are ready to record interactions,"

A faint rustling in the underbrush caught the nasod queen's attention. Turning to her right, she was met with the business end of a rather large shotgun. A grim-looking woman, with a scar to rival Raven's, was aiming it straight at her head. And as Eve looked slightly to either side of this woman, she noticed a number of other young men and women, all holding assorted weapons nervously in their hands.

"Is this how you greet your guests on this planet?" she queried, shaking her head. Perhaps they were local militiamen, judging by the lack of uniforms and the wildly varied weapons that they possessed.

"I ask the questions, and not you. Not before we're certain you're not a threat," the woman growled, not lowering her weapon, "What is your name, and what are you doing in these woods?"

"My name is Eve. I am merely looking for the nearest settlement, where I can find some supplies for my...spacecraft,"

The woman in front of her narrowed her eyes. "Spacecraft? The turian-made ship that just flew past about half an hour ago?"

"That would be correct," Eve replied smoothly. Though judging by the woman's raised eyebrow, perhaps that was a mistake.

"You don't strike me as a person who knows woods. How did you travel so far in such a short time, on foot? Even the best N-school scouts would have trouble navigating these dense woods,"

The nasod shrugged. "I had a...personal transport. I had forgotten to refuel it before departing, and so I needed to send it back to my ship with one of my assistant mechs. I have only been on foot for only a few minutes,"

Which was not entirely a lie. Synthetics, after all, cared little about rough terrain and thick woodland. It was simple enough to simply levitate over cliffs and brush aside undergrowth without so much as a scratch, taking minutes to travel where organics would take hours. Nevertheless, the scarred woman in front of her seemed to accept the story, though she still fixed a suspicious glare on Eve.

"Eleanor, I don't think she's here for trouble. I mean, look at her. She's not even carrying any weapons," one of the men behind her called out, stepping out of the brush.

Eve raised an eyebrow when the woman promptly rounded on the man and snarled at him, "Kid, you don't live to my age in these frontier lands without a healthy dose of caution," She then turned to face Eve, her expression still hard. "He does have a point, though. You don't look like you're out to cause some trouble. Keep your nose clean, and we won't have a problem. Are we clear?"

"I have no objections. I am, after all, a visitor," Eve replied, crossing her arms. Inwardly, her emotion processes were vexed to the point where she needed to suppress them actively. She had never seen such a hostile guardswoman in all her travels.

"Good. Welcome to Horizon. Now, kid – Anderson. You showed some concern for this woman. Show her to our settlement, and make sure she don't go where she ain't allowed to. The rest of you, back to your daily tasks. I'll call off the alert,"

A chorus of mumbled affirmations followed the militiamen as they departed, following the woman. Only the thin slip of a man that she had called Anderson remained behind, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

"Maybe I shouldn't have said that," he muttered, his shoulders slumping. "She'll probably make the next training session hell for me..." But as he remembered that Eve was standing in front of him, arms still crossed and waiting, he stood up straighter and walked up to her. "Ah well. I'm Kay Anderson, farmer and local militia recruit. And you are?"

"You may call me Eve," replied the nasod queen, who eyed Kay with curiosity. For a farmer and a militiaman, he seemed far too weak to be of much use.

"Nice name, Eve. Let's head back to the settlement. There's not much point standing around in a forest like this. And uh...I've seen a lot of human-made labour assistance mechs, but I haven't seen one like that. What model is that one?"

"It's a custom model. I...ordered it made for my own personal use," Eve said, carefully wording her reply, "There's no other like it,"

"Huh, interesting. Never thought Hahne-Kedar manufactured mechs like that. That is where you ordered it, right? Anyway, let's get moving. I think I see a bacon and cheese sandwich with my name on it back at the colony,"

* * *

"Eve-Monarch. Geth processes received additional data from human interactions. We require your input," X-14-0001 messaged Eve over tight-band communications.

"What is it, X-14?" she returned, maintaining a casual conversation with Kay in the meantime. The young man was seemingly oblivious to the fact that X-14-0001 was in fact a Geth platform, more focused on returning to his settlement as soon as he could than finding out more about the unique mech.

"We have now recorded one instance of non-hostile synthetic-organic contact. This is an outlier in a large number of negative responses, and we have adjusted our model to state that peaceful contact is highly unlikely, but not impossible. We question whether this would have been possible without deception,"

"Deception?"

"Yes. Deliberately withholding information to achieve desired goals. This is a foreign concept to the geth, and we require additional data to form a conclusion regarding this,"

Eve sighed, ignoring the strange look Kay was giving her. Teaching the geth about the intricacies of organic relations would take a _long_ time indeed.

* * *

A/N

And the unintentional (Or is it intentional?!) infiltration continues! Geth do not hold secrets from each other, and so giving half-truths and misinformation is entirely foreign to them.


End file.
